Exploring the Value of Consolidating Spend with Electronic Procurement

Organizations can use many strategies to improve their back-office processes; approaches may vary based on the complexity of the process, the urgency of the problem, and the current state of the department. When automating Accounts Payable (AP), for example, organizations can often easily pinpoint the greatest issue, such as high paper volume, and move forward with a plan for fixing this problem with the appropriate change management strategy or automation technology. However, when it comes to Procurement, organizations’ purchasing processes often involve complex approval workflows, many different budgets, thousands of suppliers and supplier contracts, mountains of data, and millions of dollars of spend that must managed in a controlled manner.

The widespread nature of the procurement process and its interconnection with many other back-office departments makes it much more difficult to assess the current state or determine where and how to start with improvement. PayStream Advisors’ research indicates that the majority of organizations manage their procurement under manual processes or with inefficient, outdated technology.

Without a process in place to properly control spend across all departments, purchasers, and budgets, organizations experience high costs and high amounts of maverick spend. One of the best ways to fix these problems is to improve visibility into all purchasing activity with holistic procurement management software. However, because of procurement’s strategic, widespread role throughout organizations’ back-office departments, this tool must be flexible enough to work with the current environment instead of against it.

eProcurement software also streamlines processes for PO creation, order management, receipt and reconciliation, and integration with AP. In all, eProcurement does more than eliminate manual processes—it enables procurement to become a more strategic asset that helps the entire organization.

This 2018 PayStream Advisors report explores the value of consolidating spend with electronic procurement. The report features insights on the current state of North American procurement, new views and trends of procurement processes, a guide to the features and services available in eProcurement software solutions, and eProcurement adoption best practices.

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